USA > Delaware > History of Delaware : 1609-1888 > Part 19
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On the 2d of April, after the signing of the charter, King Charles made a publie proclamation of the fact of the patent, addressed chiefly to the inhabitants of the territory, enjoining upon them to yield ready obedience to Penn and his deputies and lieutenants. At the same time Penn also addressed a letter to the inhabitants of the pro- vinre, declaring that he wished them all happiness here and hereafter, that the Providence of God had east them within his lot and care, and, though it was a new business to him, he understood his duty and meant to do it uprightly. He told the people that they were not now at the mercy of a Governor who came to make his fortune ont of them, but " you shall be governed by laws of your wn making, and live a free and, if you will, a -ober and industrious people. I shall not usurp the right of any or oppress his person. God has furnished me with a better resolution and has given De his grace to keep it." He hoped to see them in a few months, and any reasonable provision they wanted made for their security and happi- 1. would receive his approbation. Until he rutte be hoped they would obey and pay their cus- : angry dues to his deputy.
That deputy was Penn's cousin. William Mark- un, a captain in the British army, who was a April 20, 1651, commissioned to go out to Pensylvania, and act in that capacity until l'eau's arrival. He was given power to call a
Council of nine, of which he was to h. president ; to secare a recognition of Penn's authority on the part of the people ; to settle bounds between Penn and his neighbors; to survey, lay out, rent, or lease lands according to hi- instructions; to erect courts, make sheritis, justices of the peace, and other inferior remisice officers, so as to keep the peace and enforce the laws; to suppress disturb- ance or not by the posse comitatus, and to make or ordain any ordinary ordinances or do whatever he lowfully might for the peace and security of the province. Markham was particularly instructed to settle, if he could bomularies with Lord Balti- more, and Penn gave him a letter to that neighbor of his. The deputy soon after sailed for Pennsyl- vania, ou what day is not definitely known, but he was in Nos York on June 21st, when he obtained from the Governor. Anthony Brockholls, a procla- mation enjoining upon the inhabitants of Penn- sylvania that they should obey the king's charter and yield & ready obedience to the new proprie- tary and his deputy. When Markham arrived at Upland he found Lord Baltimore there; the boundary question at once came up, and was as quickly let drop when Markham found that the lines could not be run according to the two char- tere respectively without giving to Baltimore some lands which Penn was resolved to keep as his own.
It is not supposed that Markham took out any emigrants with him. His business was to get possession of the province as speedily as possible, so as to instire the allegiance of the people, secure the revenne, and prepare the way for Penn. It is probable, therefore, that he sailed in the first ship offering for New York or Boston, without waiting for company. Meanwhile, even before Markham's departure, Fenn began to advertise his new pro- vince and popularize what information he had con- cerning it. This was the business part of " the Divine Experiment," and P'enn was very compe- tent to discharge it. He published a pamphlet (through Benjamin Clark, bookseller, in George Yard, Lombard Street), entitled " Some account of the Province of Pennsylvania in America, lately granted under the Great Seal of England to William Penn, ete. Together with privileges and powers necessary to the well-governing thereof. Made public for the information of such as are or may be disposed to transport them-elves or servants into those parts." Thi- prospectus shows the extent of the knowledge Penn had already gleaned concerning his province, and how closely he had studied the methods by which he proposed to seeure its prompt-and effective planting and settlement. It is not necessary to incorporate the whole of such a pamphlet in this narrative, but some of its salient points must be noted. It was written, we must remember, in April, 1681, a month after the signing of the patent. Penn
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begins with an excursus upon the benefit of planta- bay, those who will rent, and servants. " To tions or colonies in general, to " obviate a common objection." "Colonies," he says, " are the seeds of nations, begun and nourished by the care of wise and populous countries, as conceiving them best for the increase of human stock and beneficial for commerce." Antiquity is then searched through for examples needless to repeat, but all brought in to prove that colonies do not weaken or impoverish the mother-country. Indeed, this part of his argument reads as if it were Penn's brief while his petition was before the Privy Council. atoi as if he drew it up in reply to objections there arged against conceding him the patent. He shows how colonies and foreign plantations have contributed to the benefit of England's commerce and indus- try, and might be expected to continue to do so. He denies that emigration has depopulated the country, but says that the increase of luxury has drawn an undue proportion of the rural commoni- ties into cities and towns, and that the increased cost of living thus brought about tends to prevent marriage and so promotes the decay of population. For this and the many attendant evils emigration, he suggests, is the only effective remedy. He then proceeds to speak of his province, the inducements it offers to colonists, and the terms on which he is prepared to receive them.
"The place," he says, " lies six hundred miles nearer the sun than England," so far as difference of latitude goes, adding, "I shall say little in its praise to excite desires in any, whatever I could truly write as to the soil, air and water; this shall satisfy me, that by the blessing of God and the honesty and industry of man it may be a good and fruitful land." He then enumerates the facilities for navigation by way of the Delaware Bay and River, and by way of Che-apeake Bay also; the variety and abundance of timber ; the quantity of game, wild fowl, and fish ; the variety of products and commodities, native or introduced, including " silk, flax, hemp, wine, sider. wood, madder, liquorish, tobacco, pot-ashes, and iron. . . . . hides, tallow, pipe-staves, beef, pork. sheep, wool, corn or wheat, barley, rye, and also furs, as your peltree, mineks, racoons, martins, and such like store of turs which is to be found among the Indians that are profitable commodities in England." Next, after explaining the channels of trade .- country pro- duce to Virginia, tobacco to England, English commodities to the colonies,-he gives assurance that under his liberal charter, paying due allegi- ance to the mother-country, the people will be able to enjoy the very largest proportion of liberty and make their own laws to suit themselves, and that he intends to prepare a satisfactory constitution.
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Penn states explicitly in this pamplilet the con- ditions of immigration into his province. He looks to see three sorts of people come,-those who will
first, the share- I sell shall be certain as to nun' of agres ; that is to say, every one shall contain t thousand sores, free from any incumbrance. p price a hundral pounds, and for the quit-rent ! onte English shilling, or the value of it, yearly. 1 & hundred veres; and the said quit-rent not : begin to be paid till 16×4. To the second so that make up land upon rent, they shall hav. liberty so to do. paying yearly one penny per arr. not exceeding two hundred arres. To the thir. sort. to wit, servants that are carried over, 1 tin: deres shall be allowed to the master for ever. head, and fifty acres to every servant when their time is expired. And because some engage with me that may not be dispose to go, it were very advisable for every three adventurers to send ove; an overseer with their servants, which would well pay the cost." ?
Penn next speaks of his plan for allotments of dividends, but as his -cheme was not then, as he confesses, fully developed, and as he later furnishel all the details of this scheme as he finally matured it, we will pass that by for the present. It i- enough to say that the plan is very closely fol. lowed to-day in Eastern Europe to promote the sale of government bonds.
The persons, Penn says, that " Providence seenis to have most fitted for plantations" are " 1st. in- dastrious husbandmen and day laborers that are hardly able (with extreme labor) to maintain their families and portion their children ; 2. laborion- handicrafts, especially carpenters, masons, smiths. weavers, taylors, tanners, shoemakers, shipwright>. etc., where they may be spared or low in the world. and as they shall want no encouragement, so their labor is worth more there than here, and there provisions cheaper." 3, Penn invites ingeniote spirits who are low in the world, younger brother- with small inheritances and (often) large families : " lastly," he says, "there are another sort of persons, not only fit for but necessary in planta- tions, and that is men of universal spirits, that have an eye to the good of posterity, and that hot !. understand and delight to promote good discipline and just government among a plain and well- intending people; - uch persons may find room in 1 Called " redemptioner," because they sold their services for a to. of years to jury or re form the money advanced to " carry the Htuvet. Son this basis, if we say pase the servant allesments to pay the quittent as other tenants, Fenn soloiets would be descend about the-
Miservants to a matter, giving it For Here's mure, total quit-rent to Is. per ltwr .A .. Equal to 25' pence per 109 A. per annum)
Thus Fenn, in plung li, images, pegged to get the cash a Traily tents amounting to Lio Se, or De, Ed. nearly per lon dres, greater part of the burden tallinz upon the sindler tehauts of e u.f. The purchaser of Siru acres had, in nesver, a further advantage shouting in the allotments, or " dividends, 'as l'eun calls theut,
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WILLIAM PENN AND HIS GOVERNMENT.
colonies for their good counsel and contrivance, acter, and he was further most actively employed who are shut out from being of much we or service in disposing of lands and superintending the to great nations under settled customs; these men deserve much e-teem and would be hearken'd to." sailing of ship-loads of his colonists. The first of these papers on concessions and conditions was prepared indeed on the eve of the sailing of the fir-t vessels containing his "adventurers." This wat- in July, and the vessels arrived out in October. Every paper he published called forth numerous letters from his friends, who wanted him to explain this or that obscure point to them, and he always seems to have responded cheerfully to these ex- haustive taxes upon his time. His work seems to have attracted great attention and commanded admiration. James Claypoole writes (July 220), " I have begun my letter on too little a piece of paper to give thee my judgment of Pennsylvania, but. in short, I. and many others wiser than I am. do very much approve of it and do judge William Penn as tit a man as any one in Europe to plant a country." Penn had also been busily negotiating with the Duke of York for the lands now con-ti- tuting the State of Delaware, which were the duke's property, and which Penn wanted to pos- sess in order to insure his own province the free navigation of the Delaware, and perhaps, also, to keep this province from falling into the hands of his neighbor, Lord Baltimore, who claimed it under his charter. But Sir John Werden, the duke's agent, still held off and gave Penn much trouble and uneasiness. The latter had received a tempting offer from a company of Marylanders of six thousand pounds cash, and a two-and-a-half per cent. royalty for the monopoly of the Indian (fur) trade between the Delaware and Susque- hanna rivers, but he refused it upon noble grounds.
Very considerately Penn next tells all he knows about the cost and equipments for the journey and -ub-istence during the first few months, "that such a> incline to go may not be to seek here, or brought under any disappointments there." He mentions among goods fit to take for use or for sale at a profit " all sorts of apparel and utensils for hus- bandry and building and household stuff." People must not delude themselves, he says, with the idea of instant profit -. They will have a winter to eneonnter before the summer comes, "and they must be willing to be two or three years without some of the conveniences they enjoy at home, and yet I must needs say that America is another thing than it was at the first plantation of Virginia and New England, for there is better accommodation and English provisions are to be had at easier rates." The passage aeros the ocean will be at the outside six pounds per head for masters and mistresses, and five pound- for servants, children under seven years old fifty shillings, " except they suck, then nothing." Arriving out in September or October, " two men may elear as much ground by spring (when they set the corn of that country) as will bring in that time, twelve months, forty harrels, which makes twenty-five quarters of corn. So that the first year they must buy corn, which is usually very plentiful. They must, so soon as they come, buy cows, more or less, as they want or are able, which are to be had at easy rates. For wine, they are plentiful and cheap, these will quickly increase to a stock. So that after the tirst year, what with the poorer sort sometimes laboring to others, and the more able fishing, fowling, and sometimes buying. they may do very well till their own stocks are sufficient to supply them and their families, which will quickly be,
So also Penn refused to abate the quit-rents even to his most intimate friends, " intending," as Claypoole wrote, " to do equal by all," but he did reduce them from a penny to a half-penny in favor of ser- vants settling on their fifty-aere lots, after having and to spare, if they follow the English husbandry, served their time. Subsequently, as we shall see, as they do in New England and New York, and et winter fodder for their stock." Finally, the candid Penn recommends that none should make up their minds hastily, all get the consent of their friends or relatives, and all pray God for his blessing on their honest endeavors.
Penn was less rigidly moral in his land contracts. In lien of the propo-ed monopoly Penn made many liberal concessions of land and privileges to another company, " The Free Society of Traders," who-e plans he favored, and whose constitution and char- ter he helped to draw.
During all the rest of this year and of 1682 and up to the moment of his embarkation for Europe, William Penn was most busily and ab- wrbingly engaged in the multifarious preparations for his new plantations. He drew up a great variety of papers, concessions, conditions, charters, statutes, constitutions, etc., equal to the average work of half a dozen congressional committees. In addition to work of this sort, requiring con- whtrated and ab-tracted thought and study, his don, wine-cooper ; and Edward Brookes, of Lon- correspondence was of the most voluminous char-
The charter to the Pennsylvania Company, the Free Society of Traders, bears date March 24, 1682. The incorporators named in Penn's deed to them were " Nicholas Moore of London, medical doctor ; James Claypoole, merchant ; Philip Ford Penn's unworthy steward) : William Sherloe, of London, merchant ; Edward Pieree, of London, leather-seller ; John Symevek and Thomas Bras- rey, of Cheshire, yeoman : Thomas Baker, of Lon- don, grocer." The deed cites Peun's authority
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under his patent, mentions the conveyance to the centre of his lot and surround his house with : - company of twenty thousand acres, ereets this traet into the manor of Frank, " in free and com- mon average, by such rents, customs and services as to them and their successors shall seem meet, so as to be consistent with said tenure," allows them two justices' courts a year, privilege of court-baron and court-leet and view of frank-pledge, with all the authority requisite in the premises. The society is authorized to appoint and remove its officers and servants, is given privilege of free transportation of its goods and products, and ex- empted from any but state and local taxes, while at the same time it can levy all needful taxes for its own support within its own limits. Its chief officers are commissioned as magistrates and charged to keep the peace, with jurisdiction in case of felony, riot, or disorder of any kind. It is given three representatives in the Provincial Coun- eil, title to three-fifths of the products of all mines and minerals found, free privilege to fish in all the waters of the province, and to establish fairs, mar- kets, etc., and the books of the society are exempt from all inspection. The society immediately pre- pared and published an address, with its constitu- tion and by-laws, in which a very extensive field of operation is mapped out.1
In the regulations for colonists set forth in his statement of "certain conditions or concessions agreed upon by William Penn, proprietary and Governor of Pennsylvania, and those who are the adventurers and purchasers in that province the 11th of July, 1681," the system of plantation is plainly described. First, a large. city is to be laid off on navigable water, divided into lots, and pur- chasers of large tracts of lands (five thousand aeres) are to have one of these eity lots assigned them, the location determined by chance. It was Penn's original plan to have his great city consist of ten thousand acres. divided into one hundred lots of one hundred aeres each, one of these lots to be awarded (by lot ) to each purchaser of a tract of manorial proportions, who was to build in the
I In this society votes were to be on basis of amount of stock held, np" to three votes, which was the huit No one in England was allowed more than one vote, and proxies could be voted. The ufo ers were prost- dont, deputy, treasurer, secretary, and twelve conuitt-men. Five, with president of deputy, a quorum. Committer-men to have but one vute each in turetings, with the casting vote to the president. Officers to hold during seven years on and behaviour ; general election and reopening of sutorription books every seventh year ; gereral state ment at the end of each bu mess year. The affairs to live off samlety's property. All these pays - events were bound to se recy, and the books were kept in society's hunter, under three Jocks, the boys in charge of president, treasnier, and old st committe >-man, and hot to be intrusted to any persons longer than to trade rile any part in das time and in the home, before zeven personas, upgrated by committee. The society was to soud two hundred servants to Postsylvania the hist year to build two or more general taPotes in Pennsylvania, one on Chica- prake Buy, one of Delaware or elsewhere ; to and Indians in building houses, etc . and to hold ne er 's for fut ten years service , when they were to go five, " out giving the sweety two-thirds of what they can pro- duce on hand allotted to them by the senty, with a stock and to. Is; if they agree but to this, to be servants till they do " The leadthe diet of the society at the outset seems to have been an extensive free trade with the Induchs.
dens and orchards, " that it may be a green reg try town," he said, " which will never be buy- and always be wholesome." Of course no s: city could be built on any such plan, and P ... himself abandoned it or greatly modified it isa before he sailed, the commissioner and survey finding it impossible to observe the conditions .. pecially when vessels began to be numerous alo . the water-front and business sprang up. This -1. tem of great farms, with a central township divid. into minor lots, Penn proposed to extend all ove; the province. Ilis road system was excellent Roads were to be built not less than forty fert wij. from eity to city, on air-lines as nearly as possible : all streets were to be laid off' at right angles and it liberal width, and no buildings were to be allowed to encroach on these, nor was there any irregular building to be permitted. This rule of symmetry. amounting almost to formality, could not be car- ried out any more than the great city plan. It was not Penn's notion, probably, for he was not a preeisian in anything, and it looks much more like a contrivance borrowed by him for the nonce from Sir William Petty, Sir Thomas Browne, or some other hare-brain among his contemporaries. Pem's system of quit-rents and of manors also, the founda- tions of a great fortune, resembled closely that of Lord Baltimore in Maryland. It is likely that Penn got the idea where Lord Baltimore derived his, from Ireland, that form of irredeemable ground-rent being an old and familiar Irish ten- ure." The quit-rent system enused alnost imme- diate discontent in Pennsylvania, and undoubtedly injured the proprietary's popularity and interfered with his ineome. His large reservations of choice lots in every section that was laid out, contributed to this also.
Every person was to enjoy access to and use of water-courscs, mines, quarries, etc., and any one could dig for metals anywhere, bound only to pay for damages done. Settlers were required to plant land surveyed for them within three years. Goods for export could only be bought or sold, in any case, in publie market, and fraud and deception were to be punished by forfeiture of the goo l. All trading with Indians was to be done in open market, and fraud upon them prevented by inspec- tion of goods. Offenses against Indians were to be punished just as those against the whites, and disputes between the two races to be settled hy a mixed jury. Indians to have the same privilege as the whites in improving their lands and raising crope. Stock not marked within three month-
: Instructions to commissioners for settling the colony, Oct 19, IT-1. This has Let of lusively shown in somne njom His publiskol m the Maryland los pestered the judges of the Maryland Court of Appe als wars, renowater forever." it was decided that these leases were It Io tual, and their fast rien po Lution to the Irish leases was demonstrat d in order to establish the tart of their irredeemable character.
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after coming into possession of planters to be for- bills by the clerk of the Provincial Couneil, and feited to the Governor. In clearing land, one-, the occasion and notives for them being opened titth to be left in wood, and oak and mulberry trees to be preserved for ship-building. To pre- vent debtors from furtively absconding, no one was to leave the province until after three weeks' pub- lication of the faet. by the Governor of his deputies, shall give their affirmative or negative, which to them seemeth best. . . . and the laws so prepared and proposed `as aforesaid that are assented to by the General Asembly shall be curelied es laws of the province, On April 25th he published his " frame of gov- ernment," or, as James Claypoole called it in his letters, " the fundamentals for government," -- in fact, the first constitution of Pennsylvania. with this style : . By the Governor, with the assent and approbation of the freemen in the Provincial Council and General Assembly.'" Here is the fatal defeet of Pean's Constitution, a de feet which The document is entitled " The frame of the government of the province of Pennsylvania, in America, together with certain laws agreed upon in England by the governor and divers freemen of the aforesaid province, to be further explained and continued there by the first provincial council that shall be hell, if they see meet." role it of even any pretence of being republican or democratic in form or substance. The Assembly, the popular body, the representatives of the people, are restricted simply to a veio power. They cannot originate bills ; they cannot even debate them ; they are not allowed to think or aet for themselves or those they represent, but have nothing to do The " preface " or preamble to this constitution is curious, for it is written as if Penn felt that the eyes of the court were upon him. The first two paragraphs form a simple excursus upon the doc- trine of the law and the transgressor as expounded in St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans : " For we know that the law is spiritual : but I am carnal, sold under sin," ete. From this Penn derives, not very perspienously, however. " the divine right of government," the object of government being two- fold, to terrify evil-doers and to cherish those that do well, " which gives government a life beyond corruption [i. e., divine right], and makes it as durable in the world as good men shall be." Hence Penn thinks that government seems like a part of religion itself, a thing saered in its institu- tion and end. except vote "yes " or "no" To be sure, the Connell is an elective body too. But it is meant to consist of the Governor's friends It is the aris- tocratie byly. It does not come fresh from the people. The tenure of its members is three years. Besides, for ordinary business, twenty-four of the Council make a quorum, of whom twelve, with the Governor's casting vote, comprise a majority. The Governor has three votes ; the Society of Free Traders has six votes ; if the Governor have three or four friends in Council, with the support of this society he ean control all legislation. It seems in- credibile that William Penn should have of his own free will permitted this blemish upon his Con- stitution, which he claimed gave all the power of government and Jaw-making into the hands of the people.
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